Illumi idly toyed with his phone, hesitating.
His injuries weren't serious enough to matter. With a few needles and some of the Zoldyck family's special treatment methods, he could recover from this kind of damage in short order.
What really troubled him was whether he should call in outside help and go after Ronin again.
Ronin's abilities were troublesome, and his strength was no joke.
With Zeno and Silva unwilling to step in, Illumi's options were limited. The only elders he could turn to were Zzigg and Maha, but Zzigg's whereabouts were unpredictable, so the only real option was Maha.
The price Chrollo offered was enough to get Maha to move, but whether it would succeed was another matter.
Just like his father Silva had said, this job really wasn't worth it, even after he raised the price.
Ronin's rate of growth had exceeded Illumi's expectations.
And Illumi had realized something else too: Chrollo definitely knew something, and he hadn't told him.
Clients like that were a problem in themselves.
Chrollo checked his phone. By his estimate, Illumi should have made his move by now.
But no message had come in, which left only one possibility: Illumi's assassination attempt had failed.
If the target had only been Ryan, there was no reason Illumi should have failed.
So the only explanation was that Ronin had disguised himself as Ryan, causing the assassination to misfire.
The only unknown was whether Illumi was still alive.
If Illumi survived, he would most likely organize another assassination attempt.
Chrollo had deliberately withheld the information he got from Hisoka. That way, if Illumi wanted to succeed, the best option would be to call in reinforcements.
Whoever the Zoldyck family sent next should be able to cause Ronin plenty of trouble, and might even have a real chance of killing him.
That was Chrollo's conclusion after seeing Silva and Zeno at Semetari.
They were strong. Stronger than any Troupe member.
In fact, Chrollo had felt it at the time: it wasn't that the Zoldycks couldn't kill Isuri even while surrounded by the Troupe. They had simply weighed the risks and chosen not to make a move, instead waiting for a safer opportunity.
They had no interest in taking unnecessary risks.
Ronin's strength was growing quickly, yes, but against veterans like that, Chrollo didn't think Ronin in his current state could come out ahead.
As for the people around Ronin, their main strength lay in strategy. They couldn't contribute much in direct combat.
And if Illumi had died in this assassination attempt—
then the Zoldyck family would most likely investigate Ronin and launch another round of assassinations, and this time Chrollo wouldn't even need to pay for it again.
After all, they'd be doing it under the banner of avenging the Zoldyck family's eldest son.
In other words, Chrollo had squeezed every bit of value possible out of Illumi's identity this time.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the Zoldycks wouldn't avenge Illumi if he died on a job. But that didn't matter. Chrollo lost nothing either way.
Still, no matter how he looked at it, Illumi's reaction confirmed one thing: Ryan was dead, and Ronin had replaced him with a clone.
If Chrollo spread that news back to Meteor City—
His thoughts stopped there.
He suddenly saw another possibility.
Even if what was happening now hadn't been fully anticipated by Kurapika, it was something Kurapika could absolutely turn to his advantage.
Because if Chrollo sent that information back to Meteor City, it would only lead to one result:
the extremists in Meteor City would launch another attack on Ronin's position.
But would they actually succeed?
Chrollo knew the answer: failure.
Those lunatics would never unite and strike as one. More likely, they'd charge in one after another, and that would only let Ronin's side wipe out a huge portion of the troublesome elements in Meteor City.
Chrollo felt a headache coming on.
Ronin was the perfect enforcer. Kurapika's intellect allowed Ronin's strengths to be used to their fullest.
The two of them together brought out the absolute best in each other.
If Chrollo didn't send the information back, then Ronin's side would effectively secure Ryan's identity and gain a degree of influence in Meteor City.
Ryan was, after all, a senior member of the elders' council.
And especially with that blown-up ship and the "deaths" of Ronin and the others, Ryan would end up with credit for it, which would only further solidify his standing in Meteor City.
But Chrollo had found the blind spot.
October 1.
That was when Ronin would fight Hisoka at Heavens Arena.
At that point, Chrollo would be left with two choices.
One: go to Heavens Arena and try to attack Ronin after the fight.
Two: return to Meteor City and uproot the nail Ronin had planted there.
The only real option was the second.
Because Chrollo still hadn't found an ability that could counter Ronin. Even if he gathered people and went to Heavens Arena now, things could easily end up like Uvogin's match on the arena stage.
Or worse, Kurapika might already have traps set up at Heavens Arena, and the Troupe could end up losing more members.
After all, Ronin was extremely close to the gold-tier manager Milia, and Milia's influence at Heavens Arena was no small thing.
Add in the variable of the Rock mercenary group, and that kind of fixed-location confrontation would be very bad for the Troupe.
More precisely, the October 1 fight at Heavens Arena was a giant piece of bait deliberately thrown out by Ronin's side.
Chrollo let out a quiet sigh. In one matter after another, the room left for him to maneuver was becoming smaller and smaller.
So under these circumstances, doing nothing at all might actually be best. He would devote himself completely to finding an ability that could counter Ronin.
Chrollo's reasoning wasn't wrong. After Ronin was attacked by Illumi, Kurapika's plan had been for Ronin to wipe out every extremist who came after him.
But after waiting two days, Milia's people had already arrived, and the extremists still hadn't made a move.
Which meant their identities had not been exposed because of the assassination.
"He figured it out," Kurapika said.
And the "he" he meant was obviously Chrollo.
Even though Chrollo hadn't shown himself, the enemy Kurapika had been envisioning this whole time was the Chrollo lurking in the background.
The silence after the assassination attempt meant Chrollo had chosen not to act at all. It was the smartest move he could have made.
And Kurapika could also roughly guess what Chrollo would do next.
According to Ronin, Chrollo was an extremely cautious man. Until he found a way to defeat Ronin with certainty, he most likely wouldn't show himself.
Going by the timeline, Milia should already be starting to market the hype around Ronin's next fight.
That meant there was a very high chance Chrollo would refuse to take the bait at the October 1 trap. And if he wasn't going to Heavens Arena, then where would he go?
Would he really allow "Ryan" to remain embedded in Meteor City like a nail?